Youth and ambition at Polartec-Kometa U23 to face the ‘new Bira’ of Bizkaia
I Bizkaia 3E
Markina-Xemein, Ibarrangelu y Berriatua. From April 27 to April 29.
Organised without interruption between 1981 and 2009, the Bizkaiko Bira became one of the most prestigious stage races in the Spanish amateur world. Under the tutelage of the Sociedad Ciclista Amorebieta, the Vuelta a Vizcaya shone with its own light, year after year, with the best of the Spanish amateur peloton and good pearls from abroad. The departure of that society and the forced change of organizers, back in 2005, gave way to a slow decline that, accelerated by the economic problems derived from a considerable decrease or direct losses of its sponsors, without ignoring new changes in the organizational plot, gave way to his definitive death. Uruguayan Fabricio Ferrari was his last champion. And that light, that spirit of the Bira, never died out.
This year, one after a first attempt that could not be completed, and with the firm intention of drinking from all that tradition, the first edition of Bizkaia 3E is launched, a kind of new Bira that is based on the collaboration of three clubs from three towns in Bizkaia, with the support of their municipal institutions and the provincial federation. A new event in stages for the U23 calendar which will be attended by Polartec-Kometa with a young squad full of enthusiasm and with the firm intention of making a beautiful race. Carlos García, Sergio García, Sergio Hernández, Joan Martí Bennassar, the Dutchman Wesley Mol, Jorge Pastor and the Portuguese Daniel Viegas will represent the team.
“Both as a team and personally we arrived in a sweet moment”, explains a Jorge Pastor who comes to the event looking for a good overall; “we are giving a very good image and the level of form both collectively and individually is good. I’m looking forward to it. I’d like to dispute. I have set myself that goal on fire and I have worked hard over the past few weeks to get there well. Morale is also high, because I’ve put in good performances in the last few races of the Spanish Cup and I’ve shown that I can be with the best uphill. I want to continue this dynamic in the Basque Country. It’s special to run there. I have competed for two years with a Basque team and I am very excited to be back on the roads, ports and grounds that are familiar to me. Then, of course, the race will put us in our place every day. But I was waiting for the arrival of the laps to show that in multi-day races I’m always going to get better. In a day’s race, it’s always harder for me to get into the race”.
“Looking at the profiles and the routometers it’s obvious it’s going to be a complicated lap. Short stages, especially the first one, very nervous. We have to be careful from the first minute so that we don’t miss the race. As they are short and explosive stages, with a lot of steep slopes, a lot of ups and downs, a lot of mouse trails, we have to be on the lookout for everything that needs to be done. It’s going to be a nice, hard lap at the same time”, Pastor concludes.
“This new Bizkaia 3E is three independent races that will have a common final general classification. It’s a firm commitment to recover a race that many years ago was very, very important, but now starts from scratch,” explains director Rafa Diaz Justo, who finished second in a general win by Juan Carlos Dominguez in 1994.
Stages.
27 de abril: Memorial Sabin Foruria (Markina-Xemein), 104 km.
28 de abril: Ibarrangeluko Sari Nagusia (Ibarrangelu), 120, 7 km.
29 de abril San Gregorio Saria (Berriatua), 131,8 km.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
